Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The Republican National Convention starts in 3 weeks. I have several friends(more like 80-100) attending. Some are very close to me, like my Pastor, who happens to be an alternate for the Iowa delegation(He has me to thank for that. We'll see when he gets back how he feels about my push to have him on our slate of delegates and alternates). 10 members of the Iowa delegation are people I can call at any time and for nearly any reason. The purpose of this post is not to attempt to sway any Trumpcult members into supporting a sane and rational candidate. I've done that and I will continue to do more of that in the future.
The purpose of this post is to call for fervent and serious prayer for this convention. The likelihood of serious violence, from both paid leftist protesters and Trump's own band of not-so-merry thugs is highly likely and even though security for this will be unprecedented, the possibility of people getting hurt and property being damaged is quite high.
We need to pray for the delegates, that they may have wisdom and courage to stand for what is right, not just what is politically expedient. We need to pray that the delegates don't let people who don't have godly interests in mind sway them from voting for a candidate who lines up with their values and the party platform. We need to pray for the safety of the general public in Cleveland.
We need pray for the police and uniformed security staff, that they may be wise in dealing with any uprisings and do so with justice in mind.
We need to pray for Donald Trump's soul. The man is lost. He is so wrapped up in himself that he can't see what harm he does to others as long as he sees personal gain. He needs to be convicted in the Lord and he needs to realize that he is a sinner, just as broken as any other sinner.
We need to pray that if the delegates should choose to nominate and select someone other than Donald, that that person would be open to the wisdom of the Lord. No single mortal man can make our nation great again, only Jesus can do that.
Lastly, we need to pray that God would raise up a servant to help guide our nation, not to rule over her or institute all manners of wicked and evil policies(like our current president).
In my own life, I can attest to the power of prayer. I've learned so much from my Pastor and my friends about praying for every little and big detail. You can feel God moving when you open yourself to His will. If the people of America would start their day, everyday, on their knees asking God to forgive them, guide them, and provide for them, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now. I know that 2 Chronicles 7:14 gets thrown around quite often, but between that and the lessons from Jesus on how we should approach prayer, I think we could see a true revival in our nation, if only we'd get ourselves out of God's way and choose to follow His lead.

Monday, June 27, 2016

By the time you read this, Jeff Kaufmann, Steve Scheffler and Tamara Scott will officially hate me. Ask me if I care.
The truth matters more than party loyalty. My relationship with God matters more than anything. Therefore, I'll not support Trump or Hillary.
They need to see the writing on the wall. Trump is a boat anchor and should be cut loose at the RNC in Cleveland.

Monday, June 20, 2016

It is quite clear that we are living in a time where evil is becoming more personal. No longer are our battles fought across an ocean or around the world. Our battles are now being fought at home.

An American citizen of Southwest Asian descent with ties to ISIS, killed 49 people in the early morning hours today. The FBI knew of this terrorist from previous intelligence obtained through standard anti terrorism means. Political correctness killed a most politically correct group of people.

Today, a clash of progressive leftist causes occurred. The progressives have been radical Islamic apologists, all while promoting homosexuality. The two ideologies are as different as oil and water. In many theocratic Islamic states, like Iran, members of the LGBT community are regularly killed for being a part of a homosexual relationship. At the same time, progressives seek to absolve Islam of its global roll in perpetuating violence against non Muslims.

If the tolerance police seek to shut down Christians, who happen to disagree with this homosexual lifestyle, all while making excuses for Islamists engaging in terrorism, they have effectively pitted love against hate and they are on the side of hate.

True Bible believing Christians do not hate people who engage in sinful lifestyles because we are all sinners, but we do recognize that unrepentant sin separates us from God. We wish no one to be condemned for their sin, but we seek to bring them to Jesus Christ and a life of salvation through grace by faith in a resurrected Lord.

On the contrary, when a Muslim says that he disagrees with homosexuality and he believes the Koran, he then thinks that it's OK to kill homosexuals for doing what they are doing. The contrast couldn't be more stark. A Christian wants to bring the person separated from God to the knowledge of Jesus so they can live a life of victory in the Lord. An Islamist seeks to kill what displeases Allah. We hate sin but are called to love the sinner. Muslims hate the sinner and seek to kill the sinner for non obedience to Koranic law.

While I don't agree with the lifestyles of the people killed in Orlando, I choose to pray for their families. I also pray for the victims still in the hospital. There is no reason that any man or woman can't choose to turn away from sin. Any one of the people engaged in the lifestyle can call upon God to save them through faith in Jesus, repent and live a chaste life.

Islam, on the other hand, is a cult. I'm done playing around with this radical ideology. Islam is a political and social construct to keep people in a daze. If you follow the tenants of Islam, you are agreeing with the cult and all of its evil. I recognize there are nonviolent Muslims. If they truly thought they were the correct portion of their faith, there would have been a reformation event where they break away from the centuries old ideologies like stoning women, cutting off hands and throwing homosexuals off of buildings. That hasn't happened. The problem is Islam.

I recognize there are other evils in the world but there are over 1.5 billion Muslims. This issue must be dealt with. It is clear that war only changes things for a temporary amount of time. This isn't to discount the fact that groups like ISIS need to be dealt with justly in the near term but we must find a long term solution. I truly believe that a relationship with Jesus is the only thing that will solve the evil and hate in much of the Muslim world. True Bible believing Christians know that sin is wrong but we also know that love is the only way sin is conquered. I'm not speaking of the "feeling" kind of love. I'm referring to the love of Christ. Christian love is conscious decision to love some one and sacrifice for that person. Jesus sacrificed for all of us. He was the ultimate sacrifice. We need to tell people about Him. There is no substitute for the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

My experiences over the last 9 months of this campaign season have been well documented on this blog. I've been all over the country and especially, Southeast Iowa representing principles I found in a candidate running for President of the United States. Many voters agreed but a large plurality didn't and Donald Trump is the presumed nominee for the Republican Party in this fall's election. This is my party getting off point. I attended my final Republican Central Committee meeting on Monday. After I was told by nearly everyone in the room to put aside my principles and "get on board the Trump train", I'd had enough. I requested time and was granted it. I spoke up. I told them that I could, in no uncertain words, support Donald Trump or give credence to his supporters. I explained how I'd seen so much all over the country. Here is what I posted to Facebook after coming home.

"Tonight, I attended my final Johnson County, Iowa Republican Central Committee meeting. I can no longer be associated with a group tasked with electing Donald Trump.

I spoke before the committee telling them of my convictions and concerns. I didn't hold back. I didn't parse words. I referred to my faith and the fact that Donald Trump was unrepentant and in using Christianity as a tool for his gain, was a blasphemous man.After the meeting, I was besieged by half of the group and yelled at and one little old lady, my guess is she is around 80, screamed at me, "What makes you so holy?!" She continued, "I've been a Methodist for 53 years and I know I'm a good Christian!"I replied, "I'm a dirty sinner saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. If you died today, do you know where you'd go? Would you go to heaven?" She was dumbfounded. Nobody in her church had ever asked her to take Jesus Christ at His word."

This post has become the most interacted with post I've ever done on Facebook. I was thinking it wouldn't matter but to just a few local Iowans. I was wrong. It's been shared all over the country in the circles I happen to have a bit of influence in.

The evening disturbed me, for their sake, but it also helped me grow. All but a few people at that meeting were hostile to my remarks. Many are just Republicans because they've always been Republicans. Their hatred for Democrats has impaired their abilities to hold anyone with an R behind their name accountable. It is quite apparent that change in the party will not come from within, but from people leaving and taking their principles with them.

This is really the crux of the issue. The false religion people have bought into has become my greatest pain. This final meeting as a member of the party turned my attentions completely toward more eternal goals. My involvement in politics will be limited to very special candidates worthy of extreme efforts and worthy of asking my friends to get on board. Sure, I'll continue to vote, but our nation's ills won't be cured until our nation get's on the side of Jesus. Our continued slide toward complete debauchery and moral relativism has led us to accept anything from anyone who has the ability to grab headlines, regardless of their wickedness or depravity.

If someone were to ask me to describe myself with adjectives, I would say this; I am Born Again Christian American Conservative...full stop. Notice, there were no party identifiers. Unless the delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland choose to form a barrier, to be a remnant, if you will, and deny Donald Trump the nomination next month, my divorce from the party will be permanent and complete.

On a final, more personal note, I ask you to join me in praying for my friends, the Bontrager family, as they get ready to leave tonight on a seven week music mission tour of the Northeast US and eastern Canadian Provinces. I have seen them touch so many lives(mine included) that while I'm disappointed they are leaving Iowa and I won't be able to sit amongst them in church and adult bible fellowship, I know they are doing God's work and helping people to know Jesus in a more personal way.

Below, you'll find my email sent to the secretary of the Johnson County Central Committee.

Johnson County Central Committee members,

I can no longer, in good conscience, be a member of the Republican party. I resign my position immediately on Johnson County Central Committee. The hatred and vile attitude of Trump are sweeping the party nationwide. I cannot be apart of anything associated with Donald Trump. My faith informs me to eschew wickedness and choose good. Donald Trump's bigoted comments about an American citizen this week, who happens to also be a federal judge adjudicating his fraud case, are just more evidence that he is manifestly unqualified for the highest office in the land. I will actively work against Donald Trump this fall. I also will advise people to not vote for Hillary Clinton. I hope this presidential election has the lowest turnout in modern history. The Republican party deserves to feel the brunt of this. They are partially to blame for the rise of a populist nationalist movement behind Trump. Make no mistake, this is a progressive movement, with elements of fascism seeping in. They've stopped advocating for conservative policies and principles. I will vote for only bonafide conservatives with a record to back their claims. No more campaign conservatives. I look forward to opposing anyone associated with Governor Branstad in the next gubernatorial election here in Iowa in addition to working against Donald Trump. Our politicians must be held to higher standards than they currently are.
You will likely see me outside of the GOP and Democrat offices this fall telling people about their choices and why they should turn away from both this November. A gospel tract will likely be my literature.
The reasons I am set so strongly in my principles are Biblical in nature.

Daniel 9:14 Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God isrighteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

Proverbs 29:2When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Ezekiel 18:24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

Luckily, Jesus delivered those that call upon his name.

John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

John 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

John 3:22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

John 3:23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.

John 3:24 For John was not yet cast into prison.

John 3:25 Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.

John 3:26 And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.

John 3:27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

John 3:28 Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.

John 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

Romans 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Romans 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spiritis life because of righteousness.

Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Romans 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

My efforts will be focused on eternal truths and not the ways of the world any longer. This is why neither Hillary or Trump are worthy of the vote of any born again Christian.